Home: Interstellar: Merchant Princess (28 page)

The
Tiger’s
first jump hid them from General Khanag’s fleet and gave them time to secure the ship and stabilize Molly, Meriel, and the other wounded in the mess hall before they jumped again. But it took another hour for the ventilation system to scrub the air, and during that time the crew worked through the ozone and smoke.

“Here it is,” Cookie said. He was wearing visualization goggles and lay on his back under the bridge’s command console, looking at an abstract depiction of their ship’s memory.

“How much is there?” Captain Vingel asked.

“Just a fragment of the virus that hijacked us is left. It sneaked in during the last beacon synch.”

“What’s it do?” the captain asked.

Cookie pushed himself out from under the console and sat upright, a thin line of blood leaked from under the bandage on his head. “This piece just flashes an ID to triangulate our position, but it replicates.”

“How bad?”

“Likely anything on the ship that communicates is infected,” Cookie said.

“And that means everything,” the captain said. “Hell, my shoes communicate.” He tapped the link on his wrist. “Socket, tell everyone to turn in their links.”

“And we’ll need to check the coffee maker and toothbrushes.”

“Socket, sweep for anything with a network ping. Everything that was or is live is likely infected.”

Socket responded through the link, “We can wipe everything, but we don’t have backups for the firmware. They’ll be dead.”

“Oh well, back to the stone age,” the captain said referring to the 1990s. “Then what about nav?”

“Khanag’s goons deactivated the nav virus when they took the bridge,” Cookie said. “I flushed everything but the raw code in backup, but I wouldn’t trust our lives on it.”

The captain nodded and tapped the link on his wrist again. “Jerri, where are we?”

“Honestly, Captain, I don’t know, but it’s about a light week from the point of attack, and Khanag will never see our EM even if we were broadcasting. John will jump us again in another few minutes.”

“Acknowledged,” the captain said. “Anything more we can do here, Sergeant?” Cookie shook his head, and the captain tapped his link again. “All bridge crew report to the forward mess. Disaster recovery.”

When Cookie and the captain reached the mess hall, they found Socket, Jerri, most of the crew, and many of the passengers already gathered. Elizabeth was there tending to Meriel.

“Where are we going, Captain?” Jerri asked.

“Doesn’t matter yet,” the captain said. “Just run. They may be only one jump behind us. Alternatives? Let’s hear ’em.”

Jerri raised her hand. “We have enough food and fuel to run and hide for a while.”

The captain frowned. “We’ll need to stop for fuel and food eventually.”

“And Khanag knows it,” Cookie said. “BioLuna and Khanag combined can have a ship at every station and refueling point. There’s nowhere to go.”

“We can’t just wander out here,” Jerri said.

Elizabeth raised her hand. “Meriel needs help, Captain. She can’t wait.”

The captain turned to Elizabeth. “And who are you?”

Elizabeth stood and walked to the captain, leaving Meriel with Nobu. “I’m Meriel’s sister, Elizabeth Hope.”

“You weren’t on the passenger manifest,” he said. “How did you get aboard?”

“Ah…Meriel rescued me from Etna.”

“A stowaway? Rescued from what?”

“There was fight and I…”

“A fugitive?”

Elizabeth looked down and nodded.

“She helped us save the ship,” Lev said.

“She hid the weapons for us,” Cookie said. “We couldn’t have escaped without her help.”

The captain looked at Cookie. “Sergeant Cook, she’s your responsibility now.”

“Aye, sir,” Cookie said and walked over to stand next to Elizabeth. “Meriel needs help soon, or she’ll die, sir. Internal bleeding. Doc was our only medical officer, and he’s dead.”

Elizabeth remained quiet but bit her lip.

The captain tapped Lev on the shoulder. “Corporal, see what we got in cargo that can provide some emergency-medical assistance. Buzz me when you have it.” The captain turned to Jerri. “What’s the nearest station?”

“Etna, sir,” Jerri said, “then Procyon A, Luyten’s star, and DX Cancri.”

“They’ll find us anywhere we jump,” Alf Martin said, sweating and jumpy.

“We could send an ePod ahead to signal the beacon and flush them out,” Socket suggested.

“What’ll we do when they find out it’s a decoy?” Cookie said. “We can’t shoot back.”

“How about the station troopers?” the captain asked.

“We’ll need to synch with a beacon to let the troopers know we’re in danger, and before we do, we’re a target,” Cookie said. “They can destroy us and spin any story they want.”

“That would be kind of hard, don’t you think?” Alf Martin said with a smirk and blinked.

Elizabeth looked at him and furrowed her brow. “Why would that be hard? They hid piracy for a hundred years.”

“If we make it to a station, Elizabeth will be arrested—”

“She’s a stowaway, Sergeant,” the captain said.

“—and Meriel will be arrested as an accessory for evading the police,” Cookie said.

The captain nodded, rose, and paced the mess. “Other ideas?”

“We’ve got nowhere to run,” Socket said.

“It’s that bitch, Meriel,” Alf Martin said. This time the slur in his voice from a recent drink was obvious. “She’s the reason we’re in this fix. Why not negotiate and give her up while we’ve still got some leverage?”

“Shut up, a-hole,” Elizabeth said. “She’s the one that saved your worthless ass.”

“Another word, Alf, and I’ll confine you,” the captain said.

“She—” Alf began, but Elizabeth interrupted him with an elbow to the face and knocked him into the bulkhead after which he dropped to the deck unconscious. Elizabeth returned to the conversation as if she had simply scratched an itch.

“That was my crewman, Miss Hope,” the captain said. “Sergeant Cook, restrain the stowaway.”

“Aye, Captain,” Cooke said and took Elizabeth’s arm.

“But I—” Elizabeth began to say, but Cookie squeezed her arm.

“Time to close your mouth, lassie,” Cookie said.

“They might let us go if we’re near a station and witnesses,” a passenger said.

“It’s too late now,” the captain said. “We all know their secret, and we’re all a threat to their security.”

Elizabeth shuffled her feet. “We can go to Home,” she said.

“Where is that?” the captain asked, and Elizabeth gave them the coordinates to TTL-5B3. The bridge crew groaned, and the captain shook his head patiently.

“We all know those coordinates,” Jerri said as if speaking to a child. “They’re frauds. TTL-5B is a rock with a refueling station.”

“No, no,” Elizabeth said. “Transpose to the DX Cancri ecliptic. We’re looking for TTL-5B3, not TTL-5B.”

The captain frowned. “B3 makes it a moon, Ms. Hope.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Jerri, try it,” the captain said.

Jerri tapped on her link, and a few seconds later, she raised her eyebrows. “Eleven light from Dexter? Behind a dust cloud?” she said.

Elizabeth nodded. “That’s it.”

“Well, you can see it from Dexter Station. They call it Jira-1, but there’s no survey for it.”

“Yes, there is,” Elizabeth said. “It’s the survey for TTL-5B. It’s just that the designation and offset were misunderstood.”

“That’s a long way on a guess from a fugitive,” the captain said. “Jerri, do we know anyone who’s been there?”

“I’ve been there,” John said as he walked in. “That’s LeHavre Station.” He looked at Elizabeth. “Meriel figured it out?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“What are you two talking about?” the captain asked.

“That’s the location for LeHavre and Haven,” John said. “It’s BioLuna’s best-kept secret, and your cargo chief figured it out.”

“Wait a minute. How can you hide an entire star system?” Cookie asked.

“We’re not hidden,” John said. “Everyone has the data sheets on the star and planet and Haven. They’re on every website in the galaxy. They made fantasy movies about us, not very accurate, by the way. The only thing unknown was the orientation from DXC. BioLuna’s been aggressively scrubbing sites because people were getting too close to the truth.”

“Is this real, John?” the captain said.

“My kids are there.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” the captain asked.

“I did. You weren’t listening.”

“If Khanag and BioLuna can be at every station, why not LeHavre?” the captain asked.

“They know better,” John said.

“And just why is that?” the captain asked.

“Because Haven is already expecting an attack from BioLuna,” John said, “and will not let unidentified ships mill about. We have ships in orbit and guard the jump points with laser cannons. Where else can we go?”

“Captain, John got us this far and is familiar with the destination,” Jerri said.

The captain smiled. “Funny thing, John, but I’ll bet we’re already headed in that direction.”

John rubbed his chin. “Yeah, kinda,” he said.

“We’re dead if we drop back into known space,” Cookie said.

John gave him a patient smile. “Haven
is
known space,” he said. “It’s just that
you
don’t know it.” He turned to the captain. “They can repair the ship and nav at LeHavre, sir.”

“Do they have troopers there?” Cookie asked. “We need them to start forensics before repairs begin.”

John shook his head. “No, only the Haven Marines, but we have lots of them. And legal offices for LGen Inc. that have standing on Lander.”

“Pilot, what will it take?” the captain asked.

Jerri tapped her link. “It’s about six light from our current sphere. That’s most of our fuel if we make it in one long jump.”

“One long jump will be hard on Meriel,” Cookie said.

The captain nodded. “And too risky. We need to get back to a known station, just in case.”

Jerri tapped on her link again. “Five jumps there, and we can still make Lander.”

“Meriel may not make five jumps,” Cookie said.

The captain’s link squawked. “Lev, here. We’ve got a med-tech prototype packed up. Don’t know anything about it.”

“It’s BioLuna,” John said. “It can do minor surgery and life support. It’s one of their good products.”

“Can it fix her?” Elizabeth asked.

John shook his head. “No. But it can keep her stable.” He lowered his voice and added, “It can keep her alive.”

“Haul it up here, Lev,” the captain said.

Lev’s voice came from the link. “If we open it, we own it.”

“They can bill me,” Elizabeth said.

“Jerri, confirm John’s jump points. John, if you have a clue how to operate this med-tech device, then meet Lev in the infirmary.”

With a plan in place, the crew left for their stations, and the captain turned to Cookie and Elizabeth.

“Her showing up here just before an attack may be a coincidence, but she’s not to roam free. Understood?” the captain said, and Cookie nodded. “Miss Hope, your sister warned the XO that an attack was coming. Do you know anything about this?”

“Only what she told me, sir,” Elizabeth said.

“How did Meriel know they would come for her after all these years?”

Elizabeth sighed. “She didn’t know. She’s just been afraid all the time.”

Status lights on the med-tech beeped in the dim light of the infirmary where Meriel was being held in biosuspension by the med-tech. The lights were dimmed as on most of the
Tiger
to help the crew and passengers rest during the breaks between repeated jumps. A few minutes later, Meriel blinked and looked around to see Cookie sitting in the chair next to her.

“Well, good morning, lass. How are you feeling?” Cookie said. He had just stopped in from his security rounds to watch over Meriel. Elizabeth slept in a nearby chair, her wrist handcuffed to the machine.

Meriel smiled broadly. “Hey, I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

“My head’s my best weapon. How are you feeling?”

“I can’t feel anything, really,” Meriel said. “Where am I?”

“John calls it a med-tech. He says it kinda locks down your system so you can’t hurt yourself more. I guess your head works, though. What else can you move?”

Meriel squinted, her brow furrowed, and her neck muscles twitched, but nothing else moved. Then her right hand and arm moved. “I guess that’s it,” she said. “Is this permanent?”

Cookie shrugged. “Until we get to some real doctors.”

“Did Ferrell leave with Khanag?”

Cookie squinted and frowned. “No. Ferrell’s dead. Captain says we’re heading for Haven, and they have the docs you need.”

Meriel tried to nod but cringed with a headache. She looked at Cookie and then back to the med-tech.

“Sorry I couldn’t be there in the fight with you” he said.

Meriel looked back at him with a smile. “I thought of you, of what you would do,” she said and looked away again. “I wanted you to save us.”

“Us?” he said with a gentle voice.

Meriel closed her eyes. “Me.”

“Sorry, lass. I should have been the one taking the fire.”

“You outthought them, Cookie. We survived because you gave the weapons to someone they didn’t know was aboard.”

Cookie shook his head. “I thought it was you.”

“So did Lev.”

He kissed her on the forehead. “You did just fine without me. I’m proud to serve with you.”

Meriel looked back up at Cookie with a smile, but status lights on the med-tech blinked, indicating a new cycle of sedatives was starting. Meriel could feel them kick in. “Wait, I have…” she started to say but drifted back to sleep.

A few minutes later John entered. “Damn, did I miss her?” he asked.

Cookie nodded. “Get some sleep, John. You look exhausted. Go on, I’ll spell you.”

John shook his head. “Everybody’s exhausted. I’ll stay.”

Cookie nodded and left, and John took a chair opposite Elizabeth. “Molly is up and around, M,” he said to the sleeping Meriel. “Oh, and Liz said that little Eddie came by earlier to see you. He said he threw his toy at the black-suit before his mom shot him.”

Elizabeth woke to the sound of John’s voice and watched him lean over to look at Meriel’s face inside the med-tech. He put his hand on the outside of the cowl near Meriel’s hand.

“Meriel, you’ll like Haven,” he said. “You can run all day in the fields without stopping. It’s a yellow sun, like Sol, and you can feel the heat on your skin. When we first left Earth orbit, we said, ‘We’re going home.’”

Elizabeth closed her eyes again, heard her mother’s voice describe Home, and recalled the scents of wheat and jasmine. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Meriel smiling in her sleep.

***

Meriel was awake, with the med-tech’s cowl pushed back and talking to Elizabeth and John when Molly and the captain entered the infirmary the next morning. Meriel frowned and turned her head away so they could not see her expression. She squeezed Elizabeth’s hand to get her attention and signed, “Trust only Cookie.”

“John too?” Elizabeth replied in sign.

“Only Cookie.”

“I hope you are feeling better, Chief Hope,” the captain said, and Meriel nodded. “John, Meriel, Elizabeth, this concerns you greatly,” the captain said. “I need you to review this before I send it.”

To: UPI, AP, GCI, UNE Human Rights Council, UNE Office of Internal Affairs, United Planets Council, Independent Station Alliance, Sector 28 Space Troopers…

From: Anonymous

Please find attached documents that link BioLuna, Alan C. Biadez, and the Archtrope of Calliope to an attempted illegal takeover of the moon Haven (Jira-1/B3) and LeHavre Station. (See certificate of origin enclosed.)

Also attached, please find evidence linking named parties in attack on the independent trader LSM
Princess
(GCN 13442:88) and recent attack on LSM
Tiger
(GCN 35521:316). Trooper report filed. Please see legal counsel PacifiCo (Pacific League of Independent Traders).

Attachments: Interim Treaty of Haven

“This is above my pay grade,” John said.

Meriel looked at John and shook her head and then looked back to Molly. “I’m not sure about this.”

“Keeping this in your pocket could be your insurance policy, M,” John said. “Let them know you’ve got this, and it could restrain them from action.”

Meriel shook her head. “A weak hold, John. Biadez knows where all the kids are. If he ever took one of them, I’d fold in a heartbeat.”

“What about justice for the murderers?” Molly asked.

“Justice? Are you kidding me?” Meriel said. “We’ll all be dead. I need to save my family, not warn people. These people have two fleets and rule a star system.”

“M, they’re coming for them and us anyway,” Elizabeth said.

“Bring them with us,” John said. “Before this goes public, have all of your kids sent to Haven. We’ll protect them.”

Meriel’s mouth fell open. “All of them?”

John smiled. “Of course, all of them.”

“But Haven is a little colony,” Meriel said.

“It’ll surprise you,” John said. “We’ll tell the troopers about the threat to your kids as soon as we synch with the LeHavre beacon. The troopers can go get them.”

“Are we OK with this, then?” Molly asked.

John frowned. “The prime minister of Haven will need to OK this message.”

Meriel squinted at him. “John, you sure you can take the kids?”

“Yup. Plenty of room.”

“Then tell
your
prime minister I’m sending it with or without his permission. Your people have survived these killers; my family did not.” She sighed and looked away. “Nearly all of the people who know about them want to harm them.”
And that’s my fault
, she thought. She looked back at Molly and the captain. “We need to make this public before Biadez rounds them up. We’re little people out here. We need to engage forces equal to theirs: the UNE, media, public opinion. I need them to be the most-watched kids in the galaxy. The only thing that will save them from harm now is if every trooper in the system is keeping his eyes on them and knows enough to blame the bad guys. We need the conspirators on the run so they don’t have time to look for the kids.”

“OK? So we send it?” Molly asked.

Meriel looked to Elizabeth. “OK, Sis?”

“Sure,” Elizabeth said, “but not this infogram. How about ‘Powerful Conspiracy Targets Children for Death.’ And send it to IGB and the independent news agencies first before the politicians and big media can spin it.”

Molly smiled. “You girls are pretty young to be so cynical.”

Elizabeth and Meriel looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“OK, M,” John said. “It goes as soon as we can synch. They can impeach me. Oh, that’s right; I don’t hold an office.”

“Yet,” the captain said. “You bring down BioLuna, and you can get elected to anything you want.”

Meriel frowned. “I think BioLuna will resist being brought down.”

***

Captain Ceirniki’s ready room was immaculate, much larger than the UNE could provision, and one of the reasons he had joined the mercenaries under Admiral Leung. And every successful mission had provided a bigger bonus. The next mission offered not just a bonus but more land on a habitable colony than a CEO on Earth.

He stood behind his desk waiting for the person he had flown fourteen light years for a private word. The window behind him was large for his sleek FTL corvette. The orange glow of Jupiter’s crescent swept across the com link on his desk, where a tiny red light blinked.

“Good evening, sir,” the captain said.

“We want to move now, captain. What’s holding us up?” his associate asked. The link displayed a holo of a gaggle of men in business suits, each with their own link and conversation led by a middle-aged man walking at the apex—Cecil Rhodes, the chairman of BioLuna. There was no delay in the communication and the captain surmised that the man he spoke to was currently on E3, Europa’s geosynchronous station.

“The heavy weaponry is in place, sir, but the admiral has a request.”

“Good god, what does he want now?”

“Their strength is uncertain, and the admiral wants an edge. Their marine contingent is modest but well trained.”

“Yes, I know,” Rhodes said with contempt. “We trained them.” He turned his head as one of the gaggle tapped him on the shoulder. Rhodes raised his hand to the captain in a request to wait and turned to his team for a moment. When he turned back to the captain, he asked, “Your forces are at full strength?”

“Yes, always. But the admiral will not leave victory to chance. That’s why you hired him. The GCE would help us.”

“The Blackout-Box is busy on Seiyei.”

“Can we build another?” the captain asked.

“No,” Rhodes said. “It requires military R and D and Pres…our partner is now too public to keep those doors open for us.”

“Are you sure there are only two?”

“Of course,” he said with a tone that implied
you moron
. “The one is still needed on Seiyei. The GCE is assuring us that the only message that leaves the colony is our message, that the takeover was a popular revolution. Without that, everyone will know it was your admiral’s invasion. God, I dream of the day we can control information the way they can on Earth.”

“What about the other GCE on Haven?”

“Still broken.”

“And they can’t repair it?”

“No, they don’t have the technology or the controller.”

“Then can we fix it?” the captain asked.

“Not without expertise we do not have.”

After a long silence, the captain spoke. “The admiral’s sources say that a technician has been found, one of the original design team.”

Rhodes stopped and scowled as if he had observed a mouse escape a trap. “I thought they all disappeared after the mur…after the
Princess
incident.”

“Apparently not all.”

“What about the controller?”

“He can operate it from the box itself.”

“You’re sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“So why are you coming to me?”

“We hear the fanatics are holding him,” the captain said.

“That’s unfortunate for him.”

“And for us,” the captain said. He leaned over his desk. “Perhaps you might negotiate a deal for us.”

“Damn,” Cecil Rhodes muttered and shook his head.
Another bargain with the devil,
he thought. He waved his flock to follow him. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, and the holo disappeared.

Captain Ceirniki tapped his link.

“Where to, sir?”

“Jira-1,” the captain said.